Felix Eckardt – Works 2014 - 2018

To paint is to invent. Unlike the inventors who gave the world the wheel, the car, the telephone or the 3D printer, though, the painter is not driven by the prospect of greater convenience for his (or her) fellow human beings or by a desire to contribute to scientific and technical progress in general.Painters move the world forward by constantly interpreting the world in new ways and by re-creating it in their pictures. This is particularly striking when we look at the ostensibly straightforward paintings of Felix Eckardt. In the virtuosity of their colours, his paintings seem so incredibly true to life that you might almost mistake them for reality. The people, the trees, the architecture, the animals: everything is extraordinarily vivid and yet still stranger than fiction. Because while the scenes he presents, scenes in which we often encounter ourselves, appear to be everyday, they always depict an overstated reality. They are vital, genuine inventions made with the help of a brush and paints. Virtually every one of these paintings triggers dozens of films that play before the mind’s eye. And yet they are purely paintings.

This beautiful book shows the current work of Felix Eckardt and is – due to its design – an artwork itself. With an introduction by Tom R. Schulz, a conversation with the artist by Tania Kibermanis and comments to his artworks.